KVR :: Instruments » the giant by native instrument...any opinion? [View Original Topic]
There are 15 posts in this topic.
Giusmex - Mon May 28, 2012 8:27 am
hi guys
i recently purchased this brilliant plug in from NI ( it is a very nice sampled piano)...just wanted to know if someone of you already has it, or any opinion on hot to best benefit from it ( in terms of effects, etc etc)
Thanx
DarkStar - Mon May 28, 2012 8:30 am
This might be of interest:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=350169
fisherKing - Mon May 28, 2012 12:40 pm
it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
EvilDragon - Mon May 28, 2012 12:47 pm
The world has seen enough grand pianos.
Kaboom75 - Mon May 28, 2012 1:18 pm
It's a Klavins stand up integrated into a wall based on a Klavins 370 grand.
It's 12 feet tall 2 tons and has twice the sound board of a concert grand the longest string is over 3m http://www.galaxypianos.com/the-giant.html
The real thing
standalone - Mon May 28, 2012 1:28 pm
fisherKing wrote:
it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
Fail.
"The original instrument is the Klavins Piano Model 370i. The 'i' stands for integrated - this huge upright piano is built into the wall of a room, effectively securing the soundboard. Over three meters high and weighing over two tons, the Klavins Piano Model 370i provides a soundboard that's roughly twice the size of a typical 9' concert grand piano soundboard."
So it's more grand than a grand.
But, talking about the sound of normal upright pianos, many people like it more than that of concert pianos. For example:
http://www.imperfectsamples.com/website/samples/braunschweig/braunschweiguprightpiano.php
And why a bar piano when you can have a yatch piano?:
http://dulcitone1884.virb.com/ships-piano
And...missing keys?:
http://www.soundiron.com/instruments/pianos/granny-piano/
Who use all those libraries? Mainly people who makes a living with music.
JJBiener - Mon May 28, 2012 1:38 pm
fisherKing wrote:
it's an upright?? what's the point of that?
I used to have a full-size Steinway upright. It was a work of art in its own right and the sound was amazing. Not all uprights are created equal.
fisherKing - Mon May 28, 2012 2:54 pm
i love the missing keys idea; too many keys & you'll be playing too many notes. how many notes in a pop record anyway? 3? 4?....
ghettosynth - Mon May 28, 2012 3:37 pm
fisherKing wrote:
it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
So, first, I am NOT a piano player. A good friend of mine is, however. He's nobody you'd know, just one of the many people who have been classically trained since their youth and who could have had some career in classical music if other things weren't more compelling.
At any rate, in his opinion, there is some advantage to an upright for certain works owing to the differences in the mechanism and the help of gravity. In addition, because of this, they do, in fact, sound different. So, it strikes me that this piano is designed to fulfill three primary goals: 1) to be the premier upright piano for people seeking the upright sound without the compromises forced by the weight and height restrictions of a typical upright 2) to fit into places that can accommodate 20 or so vertical feet, but not 15 or so horizontal feet, and 3)to be a visual work of art as well as a substantial instrument that stands out as a statement for those looking for some combination of the above goals along with a way to stand out beyond the typical black grand.
If money and space were no object and I wanted to throw money at a ridiculous piano, it would be my choice.
In some small way, all of these goals are reasons to sample it. Certainly, it will sound different to the trained ear (not mine) and for those seeking the ultimate upright sampled piano, this is probably it.
As far as honkey tonk bar pianos, they are certainly worth sampling for the same reasons that you sample a piano in the first place. I'd be far more interested in a great sample of a worthy beat up honkey tonk pinao than "the giant." Just because they are common, doesn't mean that I can get a sample of it easily or get a pristine sample library to sound like one.
RickJ - Mon May 28, 2012 9:05 pm
Hello to all,
my first post here after watching a while. As far as this piano is concerned, from the demos, it doesn't sound any more special than the other pianos made by Galaxy, the makers of this piano. It seems to me more a gimmick than an advance from NI. I don't feel they actually captured the size of this piano in the sampling, if that were in fact possible. Just my $.02...
fisherKing - Tue May 29, 2012 4:58 am
i can get this same sound by taking my sampled steinway grand, and rotating the soundfield, until is sounds like the piano top is against the wall. voila!
(also, mounting my monitors on the floor facing up creates a similar effect)...
glokraw - Tue May 29, 2012 5:13 am
ghettosynth wrote:
As far as honkey tonk bar pianos, they are certainly worth sampling for the same reasons that you sample a piano in the first place. I'd be far more interested in a great sample of a worthy beat up honkey tonk piano than "the giant." Just because they are common, doesn't mean that I can get a sample of it easily or get a pristine sample library to sound like one.
Nicky Hopkins playing an old bar sounding piano for Quicksilver.
But those days are gone forever.
Some people have an upright, then press it against a wall, or a grand on a hardwood floor, a baby grand on thick shag carpet, an old spinet in the garage.
I doubt very many piano owners ever thought about the room it would sit in first.
Cheers
DocAtlas - Tue May 29, 2012 11:05 am
ghettosynth wrote:
fisherKing wrote:
it's an upright?? what's the point of that? i always thought upright pianos were for people who A: cannot afford a grand (or baby grand), and/or B: people who have no room for a grand (or baby grand).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
next up: sampled bar piano (complete with cigarette stains and missing keys).
seriously, if it sounds good...good. but give me a grand piano (and then offer an 'upright' preset of that).
So, first, I am NOT a piano player. A good friend of mine is, however. He's nobody you'd know, just one of the many people who have been classically trained since their youth and who could have had some career in classical music if other things weren't more compelling.
At any rate, in his opinion, there is some advantage to an upright for certain works owing to the differences in the mechanism and the help of gravity. In addition, because of this, they do, in fact, sound different. So, it strikes me that this piano is designed to fulfill three primary goals: 1) to be the premier upright piano for people seeking the upright sound without the compromises forced by the weight and height restrictions of a typical upright 2) to fit into places that can accommodate 20 or so vertical feet, but not 15 or so horizontal feet, and 3)to be a visual work of art as well as a substantial instrument that stands out as a statement for those looking for some combination of the above goals along with a way to stand out beyond the typical black grand.
If money and space were no object and I wanted to throw money at a ridiculous piano, it would be my choice.
In some small way, all of these goals are reasons to sample it. Certainly, it will sound different to the trained ear (not mine) and for those seeking the ultimate upright sampled piano, this is probably it.
As far as honkey tonk bar pianos, they are certainly worth sampling for the same reasons that you sample a piano in the first place. I'd be far more interested in a great sample of a worthy beat up honkey tonk pinao than "the giant." Just because they are common, doesn't mean that I can get a sample of it easily or get a pristine sample library to sound like one.
One thing to consider is that in 'normal' pianos (from spinet to grand), the bass strings are MUCH thicker than the others, to keep the size of the instrument managable. One side effect of this is that the bass strings are a lot stiffer than the rest of the piano, and way they vibrate begins to approximate a metal bar rather than a string; this results in some non-harmonic overtones that clash with the middle and upper notes. This is one of the reasons pianos usually require stretch tuning.
With the much larger size of the Klavins, the bass strings can be thinner, which should help a lot with this problem. I've never had the chance to play one, but I'd love to hear a note-by-note comparison between it and an ordinary sized piano. I suspect the difference may be too subtle to hear in the demos of The Grand, but I bet you can notice when sitting down at the real thing. How well that translates into a sampled piano, playing through monitors, I couldn't say.
foosnark - Tue May 29, 2012 12:44 pm
I'd pay a few bucks (but not many) for a decent sample set of the warped, wonky, perpetually out of tune upright piano my mom had. It had some lovely weird sounds with the sustain pedal held down.
But then, I too am warped, wonky and perpetually out of tune.
glokraw - Wed May 30, 2012 1:50 am
foosnark wrote:
I'd pay a few bucks (but not many) for a decent sample set of the warped, wonky, perpetually out of tune upright piano my mom had. It had some lovely weird sounds with the sustain pedal held down.
But then, I too am warped, wonky and perpetually out of tune.
But then, I too am warped, wonky and perpetually out of tune.
There is a very enjoyable piano in Karmacomposers 'Monstrous' soundset-synth.
It nicely captures the older piano feeling, without disrupting songs themselves.
Worth the small price, all by itself
found at
http://www.supersynths.com/
There are 15 posts in this topic.